Pistols and Politics - 2nd Edition by Samuel C Hyde (Paperback)

About the Book

"In the nineteenth-century South, there existed numerous local pockets where cultures and values different from those of the dominant planter class prevailed. One such area was the Florida parishes of southeastern Louisiana, where peculiar conditions combined to create an enclave of white yeomen. In the years after the Civil War, levels of violence among these men escalated to create a state of chronic anarchy, producing an enduring legacy of bitterness and suspicion. In Samuel C. Hyde's careful and original study of a society that degenerated into utter chaos, he illuminates the factors that allowed these conditions to arise and triumph"--

Book Synopsis

In Pistols and Politics, Samuel C. Hyde, Jr., reveals the reasons behind the remarkable levels of violence in Louisiana's Florida parishes in the nineteenth century. This updated and expanded edition deftly brings the analysis forward to account for the continuation of violence and mayhem in the region in the early twentieth century.

Numerous pockets of small communities formed in the nineteenth-century South with cultures and values independent from those of the dominant planter class. As Hyde shows, one such area was the Florida parishes of southeastern Louisiana, where peculiar conditions com-bined to create an enclave of white yeomen, and where in the years after the Civil War, levels of conflict escalated to a state of chronic anar-chy. His careful study of a society that degenerated into utter chaos illuminates the factors that allowed these conditions to arise and triumph. Additional material reveals the ongoing impact of a culture riddled with suspicion and bitterness well into the Jim Crow era.

Review Quotes

. . . a model regional study with important though controversial significance for the wider historiography of the nineteenth-century South.-- "Journal of Southern History"

Pistols and Politics, because of its intriguing combination of economic development with sociopolitical pathology in a distinctive locale, will be of value to those interested in the history of postbellum Louisiana and the New South.-- "Louisiana History"

Hyde's Pistols and Politics is supplemented with an impressive amount of statistical data . . . [he] has provided a useful and illuminating study.-- "Agricultural History"

This revised and expanded edition of Pistols and Politics is riveting. Its description of a region afflicted by endemic homicide, feuding, and racial violence makes the Wild West seem tame by comparison. The tales that it tells would be incredible but for the massive research with which Hyde documents how a broken criminal justice system allowed white men to get away with murder. Current debates over gun violence and 'stand your ground' laws make this fascinating historical account especially timely.--Adam Fairclough, author of The Revolution That Failed: Reconstruction in Natchitoches

About the Author

Samuel C. Hyde, Jr., is Leon Ford professor of history at Southeastern Louisiana University and the director of the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies. He is the author and editor of numerous books about the history of Louisiana's Florida Parishes, including, A Fierce and Fractious Frontier. The Curious Development of Louisiana's Florida Parishes, 1699-2000.